valve cover question

[jimfai]

question about removal and replacement, i bought a NOS set of cobra valve covers for my car to swap out the plain ford ones it has, looking at the engine bay i didnt realize the clearance issue? do you need to pull the motor to swap them or can you just drop it off the engine mounts? thanks

 

[mikephillips]

Takes some work but you don't need to drop or otherwise alter the engine position. I run cast Tiger valve covers with hex drive cap screws mounting them. The only ones that are an issue are the rear ones on each side, the other five come out fine. What I did was cut down a hex wrench short enough to fit into the cap screw and still clear the top of the valve cover. Remove the air cleaner and unhook the throttle linkage to move them out of the way. There's just enough room to insert it by feel into the cap screw, although you might find it a bit easier by removing the carb as well to get extra hand room. I then use one hand to hold the hex wrench and the other with a pair of pliers for leverage to turn the wrench, you get a 1/4 to 1/3 of a turn before needing to reset. Once it's a bit loose the pliers are no longer needed and it can be turned by hand until the screw is out of the head and can be lifted out. Then the valve cover can be removed by bringing it up and forward and should clear the rocker assemblies at the back.

Granted all cars can be a bit different since the firewall changes were hand assembled into the body and slight clearance differences can exist, but this works on mine.

 

[alpine_64]

if you bought the buddy bar cast alloy covers with ribs be careful.. the tiger ones had the ribs removed on the rear to help clearance.. make sure your dont it the underside of the scuttle